Many of our readers have commented to say that they have contacted Redbox to see what was going on with the new release “Wanted” not being available in their kiosks. It seems that there has been a delay in Redbox receiving the DVDs, thus not allowing them to get them in their kiosks on time.

Now, this just happens to coincide with Universal’s December 1 deadline for its distributors not being allowed to supply Redbox with their releases. This could be a coincidence, but it sure looks like Universal is the cause of this delay by forcing Redbox to get its latest release through other channels.

In any case, Redbox has been telling its customers that the DVD should be available later in the week, most likely by Friday. So, if you can wait a few days, you can save spending your cash at Blockbuster/Hollywood Video, and Redbox will have this week’s hottest release just in time for the weekend.

Maybe Redbox should release a “Wanted” promo code for this minor annoyance. That would help us all feel better. :)

yea, returned movies at 830am this morning at REDBOX and looked forward to snagging Wanted – checked online and to my dismay seen the whole 12 kiosks in this area had none – I have a free rental coupon for Family Video so I may use this tonight….. post any new information you learn about this delay please.

Redbox was aware that they were not going to receive shipment of “Wanted” or any other Universal release for that matter. Advertising those titles on the kiosks was a total misrepresentation. Who are you crappin’?
Signed,
A totally informed consumer
PS
If you don’t post this, I’ll know why.

When I called I was told it was an unexpected delay that they just found out about this morning. As for a Wanted Promo code for the annoyance that would be nice if they did that. I may just end up going to Blockbuster and use some of my MyCokeReward points to get a rent 1 movie get 1 free coupon.

Judging by the propaganda I’m reading here , I’m not so sure it isn’t affiliated with Redbox. Are you? Where do they get the information for their articles? I will give “Inside” credit for
posting differing opinions, however.

Propaganda? You must be joking. Surely you wouldnâ€™t go to a Honda blog and be surprised to see a majority of happy customers discussing how pleased they are with their cars. You wouldnâ€™t expect to see them posting predominately about Chevrolet instead of Honda. Thatâ€™s not propaganda; itâ€™s known as â€œbeing on topic.â€

Yes, Iâ€™m confident this site is not affiliated with Redbox because Iâ€™ve read more than enough to arm myself with solid information instead of making guesses to justify some preconceived conspiracy theory. Obviously none of the information posted here is from true â€œinsiderâ€ sources. Everything is obviously from simple research, public information on the official Redbox website and the kiosks, magazine and news articles, personal observation by the author, etc. Hover over the links in the articles; they will show you the source of the information. Itâ€™s very easy to have sources set up to crawl the internet searching for the word â€œRedboxâ€ and have everything it finds sent to a single page for dissemination.

But, back to your original assertion that â€œadvertising Wanted was a misrepresentationâ€ â€“ as you can see, true to their word, itâ€™s now available. A few days late, but mistakes happen because itâ€™s an imperfect world (like the time they accidentally ordered an entire stock of one movie in fullscreen instead of widescreen.)

They will make more “Net Sales”, plus not enough of the general public will boycott them.

$1 rentals do the Studios no favors.

All studios hate rental; especially ones that give away THEIR product every day for simply existing. The studios do not want Their movies to be treated like bananas. Movies shouldn’t be treated as Loss Leaders.

Hey, wake up. Redbox PAYS for their copies. They are “giving” away their OWN product (for a daily rate higher than most rental chains), NOT Universal’s. Once they BUY it, it is THEIRS. Universal may not think it will hurt them, but their sales would absolutely plummet if it weren’t for the rental industry. I know I would watch way fewer movies. And if you think piracy is bad now, imagine what would happen if the only affordable (for many people) legal means of seeing a movie were stopped. When I say “affordable means,” I am referring to rentals in general, not just Redbox.

The fact is, the studio is not allowed to dictate the price of rentals. Once a rental company pays for a movie, the first sale doctrine allows them to give it away free if they want to. Now, Universal does not have to sell it to them, but their actions here reek of antitrust. They just happened to pick the one company who competes most with Universal’s own planned kiosk service, and they interfered with existing supplier contracts to do it. No one is saying that Universal has to lease under Redbox’s terms. But, they can not stop an individual company from purchasing a product that is available on the market. Once they start cherry-picking, their actions become an abuse of the copyright monopoly, and they deserve to go down. Screw Universal.

Can someone fill me in on what the issue is between Universial/NBC and redbox? Does Redbox now have to get Iniversial titles from a third party rather then a studio distributator? Is that the delay in not being able to get the movie before it is released to the general public?

Another question, what does Redbox do with all the copies of older movies? I would imagine they could make a pretty penny selling those copies as pre-owned to the public? Or do they already?

I understand the hatred for Blockbusters of the world, but there are some Small Business Owners out there that could use your support.

They probably charge less than BB plus they employ actual people in YOUR community, pay taxes in YOUR local community, volunteer their time in YOUR community, give Charitable donations in YOUR community. How much has Your local Redbox contributed to Your community? Have you donated more now that you are saving?

The residual business that these stores give to other businesses in exponential.

I’m not saying to quit Redbox, just give YOUR fellow hard working citizen a bone now and then, afterall, they do have more variety and if you abandon them entirely you will have lost a piece of YOUR community that will be lost forever.

Signed – A Retail Chamber Member who doesn’t want to see another empty shell on Main Street. Throw them a bone.

USHE is rather silly for trying to bully Redbox. Fortunately, for them a “street entrepreneur” isn’t running things. With so many “OTHER” avenues for acquiring a Universal DVD, it seem rather antiquated to try to force one of your best customers out of business by denying them your product. I’m sure that UNIVERSAL charges REDBOX a premium for their movies. REDBOX could easily purchase them on the open market from…let’s say WALMART at a bulk rate and circumvent the USHE.
That’s just one way…
Dumb, dumb, dumb UNIVERSAL!!!

Oh sure, Lets play the Blame Walmart Game! Everything is Walmart’s fault, right? You have no right blaming Walmart. What about Walgreens? They have boxes. And McDonald’s? I don’t hear you blaming them.

I just got back from returning The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Step Brothers, X-Files: I Want To Believe, and Naruto The Movie: Ninja Clash In The Land Of Snow at a local McDonalds here in San Antonio, TX. I had checked online before I left and showed that Wanted wasn’t available yet. I get there and to my surprise saw that Wanted was available so I snagged it.

One more thing. For some reason X-Files: I Want To Believe wouldn’t show up on my computer when I put the move in. It for some reason wouldn’t read it. I noticed that it was kinda scratched and that a lot of the movies do have some slight scratches on them. I find it odd seeing as I have seen this and this was a movie that was a brand new release the day I rented it. But the movie did play in my dvd player that’s hooked up to my tv just not in my computer. Has anyone else had similar problems getting DVDs that look scratched even when they are brand new releases.

It’s possible it’s one of those disks that also work on the computer, it loads a program or some lame game, probably contacts the company via the net and may or may not give you spyware.
When you put it in you might want to click on the CD icon and see if there’s some sort of auto run file or startup file there, that should tell you something.

That is because Redbox was not authorized to display Universal artwork, thus offering further proof that they knew “Wanted” would
not be distributed to them in time for the street date, as advertised. It will be interesting to see whether “Mamma Mia” and “Mummy” make it into the kiosks on time.

Rented “Wanted” online last night after waiting since Tuesday for the movie to be available in my area. When picking up the DVD at the kios this morning I discovered it was “full frame”. Returned it on the spot. Very frustrating considering that the website and kios listing state they offer the “widescreen” version. Called Redbox Customer Support and got a free rental code for my troubles. Guess I’ll be renting “Wanted” via Netflix instead. Oh well.

Hmmm, maybe the advertising for the “widescreen” didn’t match because the purchase department at Redbox is scrambling to get the title from any source it can; thus they wouldn’t be too discriminating about whether the product they got was “widescreen” or “full frame”.

The media is awfully quiet on this. I wonder if Ingram and VPD gave in to Universal’s threats. I guess the proof will be what happens to future Universal titles and Redbox.